As the lone client services employee, Reece answers all the phone calls, delivers all the blood samples and gathers all the information doctors need. Colleagues say Reece is the heart of the laboratory, noting they'd be in trouble without her.

Reece sacrificed her home life for the job, switching to the evening shift for several years despite being a single mother.

On May 20, Reece was the sacrifice. She and 139 other Orange Regional and Catskill Regional staff were laid off, a decision hospital leaders chalked up to federal sequestration cutbacks and reductions in government reimbursements.

Reece is left to wonder how she'll pay for the mortgage on the home she bought three years ago, insurance on her car, and provide for her son.

The hospital's ancillary Service Employees International Union members had showed up for a meeting with county executive candidate Roxanne Donnery to voice their frustrations and explore their options. Non-nursing union employees accounted for some 57 of Orange Regional's 80 layoffs.

Employees argued the loss of support staff will end up costing patients the precious minutes between life and death, with the layoffs resulting in a longer wait time on the phone, in the waiting room or in processing test results.

Staff also complained the rank-and-file were bearing the brunt of the layoffs while upper management sacrificed little. Hospital spokesman Rob Lee said no Orange Regional executives would lose their jobs during the restructuring.

Employees cited the hospital's continued employment of an art curator as an example of frivolous spending. Lee confirmed the curator wasn't being laid off, but disagreed with their assessment of the role.